19661 BOOKS IN REVIEW 231 ~ ~~~

Books in Review . Jewel Bellush, Editor

New York City A CITY DESTROYING ITSELF: AN AN-

GRY VIEW OF NEW YORR. By Richard J. Whalen. William Morrow and Com- pany, 425 Park Avenue South, New York, 1965. 127 pp. 95 cents.

THE SEAT OF POWER. By James D. Horan. Crown Publishers, 419 Park Ave- nue South, New York, 1965. 438 pp.

Richard J. Whalen could not foresee New York’s ordeal during a crippling transit strike. A City Destroying Itself, however, depicts the “endless discomfort, inconvenience, harassment and fear” routinely experienced by its typical citi- zen every working day of the year. Its thesis is that the city’s physical environ- ment is characterized by “tragic depriva- tion and massive failure.” Its people, Whalen maintains, are “driven and their senses dulled” ; eventually they are “alienated and dehumanized.” In short, the municipality is “on the way to de- stroying itself.”

The causes? The toll taken by the city’s uncoordinated development, hopelessness in the Negro ghetto which helped spark the 1964 riots, mounting violence and crime, pollution of the city’s water and air, strangulation of its traffic, inadequacy of its public transportation, indiscriminate destruction of decrepit housing and cher- ished landmarks alike, frantic speculative rebuilding, zoning laws which intensify human congestion, a “Gresham’s Law” for aesthetic values in architecture, poor planning and maintenance of parks, and unsatisfactory housing in public projects and luxury apartments. I t all adds up to a “colossal failure in human arrange- ments,” declares Whalen, inflicting “mute endurance and debased expectations” on its citizens.

Why does the city “attack enormous problems with toothpicks ?” Whalen

$5.95.

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traces its failures to provide the minimum amenities to the “apathy and venality of the city’s politicians,” the “cold uncon- cern of the city’s builders,” and the “sel- fishness of competing groups and interests whose actions and demands take little account of the general welfare.” In short, he suggests the city may be getting the kind of government it deserves.

How can it find its way out? The first step, declares Whalen, is to break through the “dry rot of civic indifference.” H e appeals particularly to the submerged civic concern and community pride of the city’s business and financial leaders (the readers of Fortune, in whose pages the book originated as an article), who have used their wealth to insulate them- selves from the city’s environmental un- pleasantness and public life. H e asks them to help destroy one-party rule, to prod city fathers into accepting civic respon- sibilities, particularly fiscal responsibil- ity, and to halt the abject surrender of municipal government to special interests.

At first blush, The Seat of Power ap- pears to be a work of a very different genre-a suspenseful “cops-and-robbers’’ story. The plot is apparently based on headlines made in Mr. Horan’s youth. It parallels the rise and fall of “Dutch” Schultz’s policy racket empire, the ac- counts of that racketeer’s death, the story of his “mouthpiece” Dixie Davis, who turned state’s evidence, and the conviction of the politician, Jimmy Hines, by Dis- trict Attorney Thomas E. Dewey. In actual fact, it deals with some of the same problems as Whalen’s book, such as the background of the race riots, hous- ing conditions and urban renewal. The fictional form gives Mr. Horan an oppor- tunity to present fascinating details in areas which the standard works on municipal government treat with scant generalizations, such as the relationship of the underworld to government officials.

232 NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW [April

As a reporter and editor, Horan has had ample opportunity to learn these piquant facts a t first hand.

Both books are exceptionally well writ- ten but neither offers a significant new contribution to our knowledge of munic- ipal problems. What purpose, then, do they serve? Simply this: They help alert New York's citizens and public officials to the magnitude of the city's problems. Two years ago, for example, Mayor Lindsay was writing about municipal problems in terms of generalities, based largely on the congressional district he then represented. Since then, a review of The Seat of Power appeared over his signature, and part of his inaugural ad- dress appeared to paraphrase closely sec- tions of A City Destroying Itself.

No government can develop strong and clearsighted policies without the leader- ship of its public officers and the support of a well-informed citizenry. By helping create better popular understanding of municipal problems, these publications have performed a signal public service.

FREDERICK S H A W

Bernard M. Baruch School of Business and Public Administration The City College of the City University of New York

Council-Manager Plan DIFFERENCES IN ROLE PERCEPTIONS IN

COLORADO COUNCIL-MANAGER CITIES. By John C. Buechner. Bureau of Govern- mental Research and Service, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1965. 62 pp.

This study covers the 36 council- manager cities of Colorado and was aided by a subvention from the International City Managers' Association. It ranks for thoroughness of concept and completeness with the top half dozen of such studies in the past. It discloses that the councilmen and managers differ in their concepts of their duties and their powers from city

to city as well as within cities, but the structure is found flexible enough to allow play for such differences. The find- ings do not suggest any alterations of the familiar structure but do inquire into some factors of the diversity of experience more deeply than does any previous re- search.

R.S.C.

Additional Books and Pamphlets

(See also Researcher's Digest and other departments)

Air Pollution

SPECIAL REVIEW COMMITTEE ON Am POLLUTION CONTROL. Board of Super- visors of Los Angeles County, Hall of Administration, Los Angeles 90012, 1965. 10 PP.

REPORT OF THE [LOS ANGELES COUNTY]

American Goaernment

RECLAIMING THE AMERICAN DREAM. By Richard C. Cornuelle. Random House, 457 Madison Avenue, New York, 1965. xv, 171 pp. $3.95.

Assessment

THE COUNTY ASSESSOR IN WEST VIR- GINIA. By Claude J. Davis. Bureau for Government Research, West Virginia University, Morgantown, November 1965. 47 pp. Chart, tables.

Budgeting BUDGETING FOR NATIONAL OBJECTIVES.

Executive and Congressional Roles in Program Planning and Performance. Committee for Economic Development, 711 Fifth Avenue, New York 1OQ22, 1966. 772 pp. Tables. $1.00.

BUDGETING FOR SMALLER GOVERNMEN- TAL UNITS. By Lennox L. Moak and Kathryn Killian Gordon. Municipal Fi- nance Officers Association of the United States and Canada, 1313 East 60th Street,